Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 5, 2006. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
RenderMan Pro Server 13.0 is the latest version of Pixar’s rendering software. A whole host of new functions, optimizations and improvements are intended to provide additional performance and flexibility when creating high-quality visual effects. Version 13.0 already contains the technologies that were developed during production of Disney/Pixar’s current animated feature film “Cars.”
RenderMan Pro Server 13.0 now supports multithreading and thus makes even better use of material resources. The new geometric primitive Brickmaps enables innovative special effects. Bokeh (blur) and shutter speeds simulate camera apertures from the real world of photography very accurately. By using the latest wavelet theories, it is said to be possible to generate even better-looking noise patterns.
A number of performance improvements are also intended to speed up work: Supplier Digital Broadcast Systems TV-Studio Vertriebs GmbH, Oberursel, promises three times faster ray tracing for reflections and color bleeding as well as four times faster texturing, with better filtering methods leading to faster texturing with finer details than before. According to the distributor, ray tracing for fur and hair now even runs ten times faster. The complete revision of the Implicit Surface results in faster and higher-quality blobbies.
Further improvements – for example the lower shader memory requirement, SIMD RSL Plug- Ins and XML statistics – complement the features. A detailed overview can be found on a Digital Broadcast Systems web page (see link below).
Further links:
- Features of RenderMan Pro Server 13.0
